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SUBMISSION: UC SHOULD DIVEST FROM REPUBLIC OF TURKEY
Daily Bruin: University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA)
December 4, 2014 Thursday
by Natalie Kalbakian
The Armenian Students' Association at UCLA will present a resolution
to the Undergraduate Students Association Council week one of winter
quarter calling on the University of California Board of Regents to
divest investments made in the Republic of Turkey. The resolution
will also call on Associated Students UCLA to boycott products made
in the Republic.
The ASA at UCLA will be holding a town hall during week nine to
inform the undergraduate student body about the motivations behind
the resolution, the historic injustices Armenians and other ethnic
minorities have faced in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey
and what they hope to achieve with the resolution. The students will
also be encouraging feedback on the language of the proposition.
The resolution calls for divestment from the Republic of Turkey -
which is guilty of a litany of human rights violations taking place
in the country today, according to countless organizations such as
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Committee to Project
Journalists - in order to bring the UC's investment holdings into
compliance with the UC's own guidelines on ethical investments.
The purpose of the resolution is to economically pressure the Republic
of Turkey for justice in all its manifestations - reparations,
recognition, etc. - for the unpunished crime of genocide against
Armenians. This initiative is intended to pressure the Turkish
government, and not the Turkish students or people at large; the ASA
does not intend to single out any student group on campus.
The resolution specifically targets over $65 million the UC has
invested in the Republic of Turkey through bonds. Those $65 million
represent the UC system's contribution to and profit from massive
human rights violations by the Turkish government.
The resolution also asks USAC to reaffirm a call made by Armenian
students to boycott products made in the Republic of Turkey in the
ASUCLA store that was originally passed unanimously by USAC in 2005.
The present reality is that Turkish products are still sold in the
ASUCLA store, giving Armenian students the impression that the 2005
resolution has either been forgotten or disregarded. We are currently
communicating with students and administration within ASUCLA to
understand what transpired.
As Armenian students at UCLA, we feel marginalized and that our
existence on campus is delegitimized. Without any consent, our
tuition dollars are invested in the very same regime that actively
evades justice and reaps the benefits of the Armenian Genocide, which
resulted in the loss of 1.5 million Armenian lives. The fact that our
own tuition dollars are aiding and legitimizing this regime's crimes
is simply traumatizing.
This resolution aims to remind everyday college students that they
are complicit in Turkey's human rights violations through the UC's
investment of their tuition dollars in the Republic of Turkey.
By boycotting and divesting, we put agency back into the hands of the
student body to decide which actions we tolerate and which we do not.
Students want to send a clear message to President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and the ruling regime of the Republic of Turkey: Human rights
violations will no longer be a profitable venture.
Turkey's human rights violations extend far beyond the Armenian
community. However, we feel that we can speak only from our own
experiences as Armenian students. These include genocide against
Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds and other ethnic minorities in the waning
years of the Ottoman Empire and in the early years of the Republic
of Turkey.
The current Republic of Turkey has also been called the "world's
biggest prison for journalists," topping the list of nation's
with the most journalists in prison. Its well-known reputation for
academic censorship on literature about the Armenian Genocide and
the broad grounds of "anti-Turkishness" is also relevant to us as
students at one of the most prestigious public universities in the
world. Academic freedom is one of the founding principles of our
university, and aiding the institutional restriction of that right
abroad is highly hypocritical.
We ask the campus community, USAC and the University of California
to remain morally consistent and support Armenian-American students
at UCLA in this effort.
Kalbakian is a third-year political science student and the external
vice president of the Armenian Students' Association. Sarafian is a
third-year political science student and a member of the Armenian
Students' Association. Der-Grigorian is a third-year anthropology
student and the activism chair of the Armenian Students' Association.
Daily Bruin: University of California - Los Angeles (UCLA)
December 4, 2014 Thursday
by Natalie Kalbakian
The Armenian Students' Association at UCLA will present a resolution
to the Undergraduate Students Association Council week one of winter
quarter calling on the University of California Board of Regents to
divest investments made in the Republic of Turkey. The resolution
will also call on Associated Students UCLA to boycott products made
in the Republic.
The ASA at UCLA will be holding a town hall during week nine to
inform the undergraduate student body about the motivations behind
the resolution, the historic injustices Armenians and other ethnic
minorities have faced in the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey
and what they hope to achieve with the resolution. The students will
also be encouraging feedback on the language of the proposition.
The resolution calls for divestment from the Republic of Turkey -
which is guilty of a litany of human rights violations taking place
in the country today, according to countless organizations such as
Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Committee to Project
Journalists - in order to bring the UC's investment holdings into
compliance with the UC's own guidelines on ethical investments.
The purpose of the resolution is to economically pressure the Republic
of Turkey for justice in all its manifestations - reparations,
recognition, etc. - for the unpunished crime of genocide against
Armenians. This initiative is intended to pressure the Turkish
government, and not the Turkish students or people at large; the ASA
does not intend to single out any student group on campus.
The resolution specifically targets over $65 million the UC has
invested in the Republic of Turkey through bonds. Those $65 million
represent the UC system's contribution to and profit from massive
human rights violations by the Turkish government.
The resolution also asks USAC to reaffirm a call made by Armenian
students to boycott products made in the Republic of Turkey in the
ASUCLA store that was originally passed unanimously by USAC in 2005.
The present reality is that Turkish products are still sold in the
ASUCLA store, giving Armenian students the impression that the 2005
resolution has either been forgotten or disregarded. We are currently
communicating with students and administration within ASUCLA to
understand what transpired.
As Armenian students at UCLA, we feel marginalized and that our
existence on campus is delegitimized. Without any consent, our
tuition dollars are invested in the very same regime that actively
evades justice and reaps the benefits of the Armenian Genocide, which
resulted in the loss of 1.5 million Armenian lives. The fact that our
own tuition dollars are aiding and legitimizing this regime's crimes
is simply traumatizing.
This resolution aims to remind everyday college students that they
are complicit in Turkey's human rights violations through the UC's
investment of their tuition dollars in the Republic of Turkey.
By boycotting and divesting, we put agency back into the hands of the
student body to decide which actions we tolerate and which we do not.
Students want to send a clear message to President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan and the ruling regime of the Republic of Turkey: Human rights
violations will no longer be a profitable venture.
Turkey's human rights violations extend far beyond the Armenian
community. However, we feel that we can speak only from our own
experiences as Armenian students. These include genocide against
Assyrians, Greeks, Kurds and other ethnic minorities in the waning
years of the Ottoman Empire and in the early years of the Republic
of Turkey.
The current Republic of Turkey has also been called the "world's
biggest prison for journalists," topping the list of nation's
with the most journalists in prison. Its well-known reputation for
academic censorship on literature about the Armenian Genocide and
the broad grounds of "anti-Turkishness" is also relevant to us as
students at one of the most prestigious public universities in the
world. Academic freedom is one of the founding principles of our
university, and aiding the institutional restriction of that right
abroad is highly hypocritical.
We ask the campus community, USAC and the University of California
to remain morally consistent and support Armenian-American students
at UCLA in this effort.
Kalbakian is a third-year political science student and the external
vice president of the Armenian Students' Association. Sarafian is a
third-year political science student and a member of the Armenian
Students' Association. Der-Grigorian is a third-year anthropology
student and the activism chair of the Armenian Students' Association.